Help Build a School in Nepal

The small country of Nepal boasts eight of the ten highest mountains in the world. But the very mountains that give Nepal its grandeur provide a challenge to building a sustainable infrastructure. Most of the population lives in rural areas where no phones, roads, clean water, or schools exist. Where government schools exist in the countryside, they are underfunded, very basic, and sometimes even unsafe. Often these schools have no blackboards and very little furniture. Supplementary materials such as libraries, children's books, and computer labs are rare.

This Gift That Gives More™ gives you the opportunity to help rectify the lack of schools by helping to fund construction of a four- to eight-room building to be used as a primary or secondary school. The vast majority of primary and secondary schools built in this way include a Room to Read library - often the first library the students have been able to use. These libraries provide extracurricular reading materials, games and activities that nurture intellectual curiosity and improve reading and critical thinking skills. These schools also include adequate toilet facilities, another relative novelty in many developing world school communities. These facilities improve hygiene and increase privacy, which leads to increased student retention rates, especially among girls.

Choose to participate at the $35 (1/1000th of a school) or $170 (1/200th of a school) level.

Report from the Field

Thanks to your donations here, the Shree Durga Lower Secondary School in Pyuthan District, Nepal, west of Kathmandu, is now complete and serving more than 400 children, nearly half female, Kindergarten through Grade 9.

Construction of the new school was completed on March 11, 2009--five classrooms and one library, all composed of brick and cement, with a solid roof, ventilation, and ample natural light.

The old classrooms from 1960 were in shabby and dangerous condition--too small with mud floors and corrugated metal roofs that leaked during the rainy season, making it difficult to hold classes.

The community itself provided more than 31% of the total cost to build, as well as volunteer labor. Donations here provided the rest. Thank you for your support!

Since 1998, when Room to Read Founder John Wood delivered the first load of books to Nepal, Room to Read has established 2,931 libraries in Nepal, developed 142 local-language titles for distribution, supported 1,609 girls on its Girls' Education Program, and constructed 863 schools.

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Why a Gift That Gives More™ is a smart, effective donation.

100% of your donation will go to the program described above as a grant through GreaterGood.org. GreaterGood stores do not receive any profit from donations through this Gift That Gives More™; we bring it to you in the spirit of the greater good. We even pay the credit card transaction fee, so every cent of your donation goes to charity.

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